Passes the Bechdel test
A Monster Calls
2017. Directed by J.A. Bayona, written by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
7 women characters. 4 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 8. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3, though someone marked that rating as dubious.
The film
The monster does not come walking often. This time it comes to Conor, and it asks for the one thing Conor cannot bring himself to do. Tell the truth. This is a very touching story about a boy who feels very damaged, guilty and mostly angry. He struggles at school with bullies, and pity looks from everyone, and at home with his mother's sickness. Will Conor overcome his problems? Will everything be okay? Will Conor be able to speak the truth?
- Released
- 06 Jan 2017
- Genres
- Adventure, Drama, Family
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 7.4 / 10
- Metascore
- 76 / 100
- Awards
- 39 wins & 57 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Conor 202 lines, man
- Monster 114 lines, man
- Mum 69 lines, woman
- Dad 56 lines, man
- Grandma 35 lines, woman
- Lily 11 lines, woman
- Directress 10 lines
- Harry 7 lines, man
- Miss Kwan 6 lines, woman
- Flash 3 lines
Full cast, 22 people
- Lewis MacDougall as Conor
- Sigourney Weaver as Grandma
- Felicity Jones as Mum
- Toby Kebbell as Dad
- Ben Moor as Mr. Clark
- James Melville as Harry
- Oliver Steer as Sully
- Dominic Boyle as Anton
- Jennifer Lim as Miss Kwan
- Max Gabbay as Steven
- Joe Curtis as Peter
- Morgan Symes as Lawyer
- Max Golds as 5-Year-Old Connor
- Frida Palsson as Lily's Mum
- Wanda Opalinska as Female Nurse
- Patrick Taggart as Teacher
- Lily-Rose Aslandogdu as Lily
- Liam Neeson as The Monster (voice)
- Geraldine Chaplin as The Head Teacher (uncredited)
- Jake Talbot as Rollercoaster Boy (uncredited)
- Lee Bolton as Rollercoster Rider (uncredited)
- Garry Marriott as Paramedic (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 8
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 2 to 2 | 38 | 26 |
| 3 to 3 | 0 | 7 |
| 4 to 4 | 2 | 0 |
| 5 to 5 | 26 | 8 |
| 6 to 6 | 17 | 108 |
| 7 to 7 | 26 | 134 |
| 8 to 8 | 12 | 97 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scene
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
LILY: I’m just making it a fair fight! MISS KWAN: LILY EVANS! LILY: They started it, Miss! MISS KWAN: I don’t want to hear it. Are you hurt, Sullivan?
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 24 are women's.
121 lines from women, 384 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
7 women and 9 men in the cast. 4 women and 6 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 5 of 519.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 85 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 30% of the words (1,502), men 70% (3,574). Women have 24% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
2
Two men
12
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 27% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- J. A. Bayona (man)
- Written by
- Patrick Ness (man)
- From the novel by
- Patrick Ness (man)
- Produced by
- Belén Atienza (woman)
- Shot by
- Óscar Faura (man)
- Edited by
- Jaume Martí (man), Bernat Vilaplana (man)
- Music by
- Fernando Velázquez (man)
- Production design by
- Eugenio Caballero (man)
- Costumes by
- Stephen Noble (man)
- Cast by
- Shaheen Baig (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Visual Effects
1 women, 4 men, 20 not listed
-
Production
6 women, 8 men, 9 not listed
-
Other crew
5 women, 8 men, 9 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 5 men, 12 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 6 men, 9 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 6 men, 6 not listed
-
Directing
2 women, 2 men, 6 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 43 on average. Men: 32 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Jennifer Lim 30, Felicity Jones 32, Sigourney Weaver 66
Men
Lewis MacDougall 14, Toby Kebbell 34, Ben Moor 47
Exhibit H: the money
It made 1.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $43 million
- Box office
- $47.3 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 8 scenes and 519 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
